Anxiety and Acupuncture
Acupuncture and Chinese medicine has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to reduce stress and activate the relaxation response.
Conquering Anxiety With Acupuncture
What happens when you’re really stressed out? Your body is keyed into your sympathetic nervous system or the “fight or flight syndrome.” Your adrenals are pumping, your breathing is shallow, heart beat is rapid, and digestion is incomplete. On a psychological level it can manifest as:
- Poor memory
- Irritability
- Difficulty relaxing
- Feeling overwhelmed
Imagine being able to relieve your stress easily and naturally. Acupuncture therapy helps your body to tune into your parasympathetic nervous system or relaxation response. After a treatment at our Edina clinic your heart beat is more regular, breathing is deeper, you’re bringing more oxygen into your blood stream, smooth muscles are relaxed and digestion is more complete. And on the psychological level it can help you to feel clear headed and refreshed.
Western medicine attributes only one organ to our emotions…the brain. But Chinese medicine figured out early on that emotional problems are attributed to the whole organ system. And that the quality of our thoughts are determined by the status of our organs.
Chinese medicine discovered thousands of years ago that there is a link between the organs and emotions. So specific emotions relate to certain organs. For example, joy (or lack of joy) relates to the heart. Anger and frustration relates to the liver. Fear and procrastination relates to the kidneys. Grief or “letting go” is associated with the lungs. Worry relates to the stomach and spleen. Remember that saying: “My stomach is tied up in knots?” Well, there’s a perfect illustration.
Acupuncture Balances Emotions
Acupuncture reinstates balance to the organ so then the corresponding emotion balances, too. Just like when a plant is welted, you give it water and fertilizer. Acupuncture sends nutrition to the organ.
Emotional disorders can be the result of a number of different organs that are imbalanced. Licensed acupuncturists use Chinese pulse diagnosis to determine which organ is involved in a malady.
Anger, irritability, and frustration are all signs that the liver is imbalanced. The liver is in charge of the smooth flow of energy throughout your body and for the smooth flow of your emotions.
Liver imbalance is one of the most common health problems seen at our Edina acupuncture clinic. Symptoms can include irritability, pain in the area below the ribs, stuffiness of the chest, abdominal bloating, nausea, acid regurgitation, belching, diarrhea or constipation, feeling of a lump in the throat. And for women: irregular periods, painful periods and distention of the breasts prior to periods. Liver stagnation is commonly associated with PMS. Ideally in a healthy body the liver should be spreading energy to all the other organs evenly in a 360 degree pattern. If it is dysfunctional, it can shoot energy straight upwards and cause neck and shoulder tension, headaches, migraines, even high blood pressure.
When you get upset the muscles around the liver get tight. Then the blood flow through the liver becomes restricted, especially through the portal vein. Then the function of the liver is impeded. Restriction of the bile duct results in bile not getting properly distributed in the duodenum. Then there are digestive problems. If there is poor circulation in the liver there will be emotional ups and downs. If the liver is fatty there will be depression, anxiety and/or frustration. With acupuncture treatment we can get the musculature around the liver to relax. This will increase blood flow to this organ, help the liver to detoxify and then the patient will begin to feel better.
In Chinese medicine we are obsessed with improving the circulation of blood. We are the plumbers of medicine. All the anti inflammatory agents, nutrients, antibiotics are in the blood.
The function of blood circulation is what heals us. That function is at 100% when you are a baby. Remember the saying “in the pink?” As a person ages, the vascular system declines. There isn’t enough blood circulating to heal the problem areas. Now, the beautiful thing about acupuncture is that when it is done correctly, it pushes the blood into the sick area to heal it. In western medicine they run tests to see if the patient is sick. But often, patients feel terrible, but the tests come out normal. So they are sick, but not sick enough to show up on their tests.
If there is an obstruction in the blood, the corresponding body part will be affected. If it’s not fixed, it could turn into a malfunction. If it’s not addressed, it could become a disease that won’t go away. That’s why people come to our Edina clinic. With acupuncture we can fix their plumbing to get their blood circulating again. Very frequently, patients come to us as a last resort. They’ve tried prescription drugs, they’ve been to their MD, or their physical therapist. And let’s make it clear that these other practitioners may be doing some good work but for whatever reason it’s not doing the job with the people that come to see us at our acupuncture clinic.
Traditional Chinese medicine was developed for your everyday citizen; to make him/her healthy, to increase energy and vitality. With acupuncture, we are actually improving the functioning of your internal organs. We can make the stress and pain go away. And we create a situation so the stress and pain does not come back.
If you suffer from stress and live in the Minneapolis/ St. Paul / Twin Cities area you are invited to download our free e-book Acupuncture For Cynics. In it you will find explanations on how acupuncture works along with research studies on the effectiveness of treatments.
Then give us a call at 952-831-8080 to set up your appointment for stress reduction. Or reach us at our contact page now.
